Making the Most of Precious Time

Join us for a day dedicated to helping families who must go through “that door.” Hear from the healthcare providers who have worked so diligently to implement a compassionate Perinatal Bereavement and Palliative Care Program in their hospitals, and the parents who have been impacted by their supportive care.

Learn the fundamentals of beginning a program; best practices in providing comfort care in the hospital; and the critical steps in helping families make the transition to home.

Perinatal Hospice & Palliative Care: Continuing a Pregnancy When a Life is Expected to Be Brief8:15 - 9:45 am

In this session, Ms. Kuebelbeck will discuss the definition of perinatal hospice/palliative care and the need for this model of care, starting with history and the current state of perinatal hospice & palliative care and literature. She will also share one family's experience with prenatal decision-making and their choice to continue a pregnancy with a terminal diagnosis.

Keynote: Amy Kuebelbeck

Break and Exhibits9:45 - 10 am

Starting and Coordinating a Perinatal Palliative Care Program in a Mid-Sized Hospital10 - 11 am

In this session, Ms. Ziegler will discuss how to develop a Perinatal Palliative Care program, as well as strategies on how to present patient care need if leadership is unsupportive of developing a full Perinatal Palliative Care program.

Tammy Ruiz Ziegler RN, BSN, CPLC

The Neonatal Comfort Care Program at CUMC: A 10-Year Experience11 - noon

In this session, Ms. Parravicini will provide a glimpse into how perinatal detection of congenital anomalies leads to the identification of infants who are affected by life-limiting conditions with a short life expectancy. She will discuss how perinatal palliative care offers a plan for improving quality of life of the infant, when extending the baby’s life is no longer the goal of care, and elaborate on how a state of comfort for the neonate is achieved when relational basic needs such as bonding, maintenance of body temperature, relief of hunger/thirst, and alleviation of pain/discomfort are met.

Elvira Parravicini, MD

Lunch and ExhibitsNoon - 1 pm

Care of the Medically Complex Child in the Community1 - 2 pm

In this session, Ms. McCardell and Mr. Mozzone will discuss how pathways of communication and collaboration between the multi-disciplinary team is needed to provide education, support and resources for the comprehensive transition of care for medically fragile infants/children to the community.

Caroline McCardell RN, BSN & Tony Mozzone, RT

Break and Exhibits2 - 2:15 pm

From Palliative Care to the Rainbow2:45 - 3:45 pm

Parent PanelModerator: Ann Coyle, RNC, CPLC

Closing Remarks3:45 - 4 pm

Keynote Speaker

Amy Kuebelbeck is a freelance writer and a copy editor for the Minneapolis Star Tribune. She described her own experience of continuing a pregnancy with a life-limiting diagnosis in her 2008 memoir, Waiting with Gabriel and is the lead author of A Gift of Time: Continuing Your Pregnancy When Your Baby’s Life is Expected to be Brief, published in 2011. Amy is also the editor of perinatalhospice.org.

Who Should Attend?

This event is ideal for healthcare professionals and care providers looking to expand their knowledge of perinatal bereavement and palliative care programs, such as nurses, physicians, social workers, child life, ancillary staff, spiritual support staff and chaplains.

Speakers

Amy Kuebelbeck is a freelance writer and a copy editor for the Minneapolis Star Tribune. She described her own experience of continuing a pregnancy with a life-limiting diagnosis in her 2008 memoir, Waiting with Gabriel and is the lead author of A Gift of Time: Continuing Your Pregnancy When Your Baby’s Life is Expected to be Brief, published in 2011. Amy is also the editor of perinatalhospice.org.

Tammy Ruiz Ziegler is a perinatal bereavement coordinator at Mary Washington Healthcare in Spotsylvania, Virginia. She has been a nurse for 34 years spending most of her time in Neonatal Intensive Care and Perinatal Bereavement and Palliative Care. In 2005, she launched a fledgling Perinatal Palliative Care program, one of only 40 in the world at the time. Her “Perinatal Hospice” video for staff education is available in ten languages and is used all over the world.

Elvira Parravicini, MD, is a perinatologist/neonatologist, Director of the Neonatal Comfort Care Program, and Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Columbia University Medical Center. She also obtained a Certification in Palliative Medicine from Harvard University. Dr. Parravicini believes each baby’s life is precious and should be welcomed and cherished. She is committed to giving babies a better chance toward a healthy life, when recovery is possible, and to improving their quality of life through the most challenging conditions.

Caroline McCardell is a registered nurse with more than 25 years of experience and an expert in perinatal and pediatric palliative care, hospice care and parental bereavement. Personally, she is very familiar with the rocky road seriously ill infants and children must travel, and has devoted her professional life to smoothing that road by helping other parents navigate it more easily.

Tony Mozzone is a respiratory therapist, a husband and the proud father of three daughters. He has over 20 years of respiratory therapy experience and actively trains families and nurses for the ventilator- dependent patient. His passion is serving the patient, their family, and the facility, for the smoothest possible transition home.

Accreditation

This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the accreditation requirements and policies of the Medical Society of New Jersey (MSNJ). Virtua Health is accredited by MSNJ to provide continuing medical education for physicians. Virtua designates this continuing medical education activity for a maximum of 6.25 AMA PRA Category 1 CreditsTM. Physicians should only claim the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

Nursing Accreditation and Credit Statements
This program has been awarded 6.25 Nursing Contact Hours. Virtua Health is an approved provider of continuing nursing education by New Jersey State Nurses Association, an accredited approver by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission of Accreditation. Provider Number P177-1/16-19.

Learning Outcome
As a result of participation in this activity, learners will be able to identify sources of Palliative Care and will have an increased comfort level when speaking to loss families.

Course Completion Criteria
Participants must attend at least 95% of the program; no partial credit will be awarded. Participants must also complete the online end-of-program evaluation within 7 days from this educational activity.

Disclosure

The vendors (commercial interests) have provided financial support for this program but they have no role in the planning or content of the educational activity.

Individuals who are in a position to control content are required to disclose relevant relationships with commercial companies related to this activity. All relevant conflicts of interest that are identified are reviewed for potential conflicts of interest. If a conflict is identified, it is the responsibility of Virtua Center for Learning to initiate a mechanism to resolve the conflict(s). The existence of these interests or relationships is not viewed as implying bias or decreasing the value of the presentation. All educational materials are reviewed for fair balance, scientific objectivity, and levels of evidence.